Hey, so you know this "space marine" thing?

[wingsandsword]

But "space marine" predates any GW usage by quite a bit.

Earliest known appearance of the term "Space Marine" in science fiction literature was in November 1932, the short story "Captain Brink of the Space Marines" from Amazing Stories Magazine (Volume 7, Number 8). He also used the term again in the short story "The Space Marines and the Slavers" from 1939.

Robert Heinlein used the term in 1939 in his short story Misfit (and kept using it throughout his works).

Those are just the most prominent pre-WWII uses of the term.

 

[Janx]

GW is still in business?

Who the heck plays their games?

Has GW actually applied for a Trademark? What lawyer actually approved the move, given a simple google search says "already been done"

What trademark office approved something that a simple google search invalidates?

It sounds more like GW's lawyers hate GW and are more than happy to file suits that should fail, just to cost GW money.

 

[Deset Gled]

But has any research be done on "driod" like space marines. Or is Lucas so big no one wants to take him on? Or since the trademark is already issued it is a mute point.

I doubt Verizon would be paying so much money to Lucasfilm for the right to use "droid" if they hadn't done at least a little research. I don't know of any other usage of the word. You're certainly free to do your own research, and I'd be interested if you found something relevant.

You could also try to trademark "driod" and see if you could slip it past the USPTO

Earliest known appearance of the term "Space Marine" in science fiction literature was in November 1932, the short story "Captain Brink of the Space Marines" from Amazing Stories Magazine (Volume 7, Number 8). He also used the term again in the short story "The Space Marines and the Slavers" from 1939.

Robert Heinlein used the term in 1939 in his short story Misfit (and kept using it throughout his works).

Those are just the most prominent pre-WWII uses of the term.

Oh really? I wasn't aware of that.

Has GW actually applied for a Trademark? What lawyer actually approved the move, given a simple google search says "already been done"

What trademark office approved something that a simple google search invalidates?

You technically don't need to register a trademark, registration just makes it a lot easier to enforce. They can also be overturned after registration.

More info here: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp

IANAL. Call dannyalcatraz back in if you want real legal opinions.

 

[wingsandsword]

Has GW actually applied for a Trademark? What lawyer actually approved the move, given a simple google search says "already been done"

What trademark office approved something that a simple google search invalidates?

It sounds more like GW's lawyers hate GW and are more than happy to file suits that should fail, just to cost GW money.

According to the BBC News reporting on this, GW is asserting that they have a "common law trademark" that they apparently don't have to register. They are claiming that under common law, since they use the term, it's theirs without having to go through the USPTO.

They apparently had a prior trademark registration on "space marine" related to gaming products, but since they just published an e-book in the WH40k setting, they now claim that their trademark on "space marine" now expands to literature.

 

[DM Howard]

I don't think they can really enforce it, it's almost like someone trademarking blue dragons. Only way I could see this working is if it is in conjunction with enforcement of their IP, so if the author is writing in the 40k universe without GW's consent then yes that's wrong and they have every right to do something about it.

 

[Morrus]

Games Workshop has made a statement (when I say "made a statement" I mean "written a paragraph introducing the concept of Trademarks"). It's on the news page.

Coming Soon in the new ENWorld Army Builder: Space Marines and Droids!

​

Army Builder -- that rings a bell. Who was that?

 

[Morrus]

According to the BBC News reporting on this, GW is asserting that they have a "common law trademark" that they apparently don't have to register. They are claiming that under common law, since they use the term, it's theirs without having to go through the USPTO.

They're a British company; they wouldn't go through the USPTO whatever happened. They'd use the Intellectual Property Office.

But yeah, they're basically describing Trademark Law 101 - registered vs. unregistered trademarks. Interesting that their PR response is basically "descriptions of what a trademark is" and not "this is why we chose to act this way".

 

[Derren]

Maybe Starcraft stole too much of the show and now GW tries harder to sever any ties between it and Warhammer.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Nagol]

The developer Lone Wolf trademarked 'Army Builder' then went into a frenzy trying to control the phrase's use outside the context of its game.